Zac Strobl ended up at Northern Kentucky University on a baseball scholarship. Heading into college, he was solely focused on pitching.
“That’s what I was known for,” Strobl told LINK nky.
After suffering multiple tears in his pitching arm, he decided to finally hang up his cleats, realizing that his career in baseball wasn’t going to manifest. Without the structure of baseball, Strobl searched for another pursuit to fuel his competitive fire.
During his junior year, he noticed a banner which stated that NKU had a top 25 entrepreneurship program. The banner piqued his interest.
“I’m drawn to that kind of stuff,” Strobl said. “I wanted to be a part of something like that.”
For Strobl, getting into entrepreneurship was a slow progression. He never wanted to lock himself into a “corporate-type” job. The appeal of being your own boss, innovating, problem-solving and a differing schedule every day were more intriguing to him.
His journey into the field has culminated into one the biggest promotions of his career: being named the next director of the NKU Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Strobl served as the assistant director for the center, and also a lecturer at the Haile College of Business, teaching classes in entrepreneurship.
“I am absolutely honored to become the next director of the CIE,” Strobl said. “I was a student entrepreneur at NKU, and I really gained an appreciation for the dedication of our entrepreneurship faculty and staff. I have had the honor of being mentored by our previous directors, faculty and staff. They have invested in me, and now I’m thrilled to be given the opportunity to lead the center.”
It’s been a decade since Strobl first arrived in Highland Heights. In that time, he has served in many roles to advance the initiatives of the center and the Haile College of Business as a whole. He is the program director and a co-founder of the Inkubator, launched in 2011 as the university’s pre-seed stage business accelerator program.
Since the program’s founding, 35 businesses have been launched, creating 64 jobs. The Inkubator has also provided business consulting to 94 students and 50 different start-up teams.
Strobl is succeeding Dr. David Schneider, who served in the director role for three years. Strobl says had a large influence on him, and took the center to new heights. Schneider will serve as the entrepreneur in residence at the center, and continue as a professor of practice at the Haile College of Business.
“David’s focus was really on creating more opportunities in the business community for funding sources for the Center,” Strobl said. “Under David, we launched the Entrepreneurship Exposition Program. We launched the first equity deal with a startup company in NKU history. David had to do a lot of work to get all that going.”
In an NKU press release, Schneider called his directorial experience “exciting and rewarding.”
“As director, I have learned from direct experience with other centers that our Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship group is among the best in the country,” Schneider said. “Congratulations to Zac in his new position. He is so deserving of this. I look forward to working with everyone moving forward in my new role at NKU.”
Looking into the future, Strobl is prioritizing recruiting strategies. Recruiting more students will create more entrepreneurs and offer broader exposure to the program within the business school. Besides recruiting, Strobl wants to do more events with program alumni.
“We have a lot of great former students who are graduating and coming back,” Strobl said. “They’re serving as mentors. They’re launching their careers or launching businesses. We’re just making sure that we’re keeping tied to them.”
Strobl described the Northern Kentucky entrepreneurship community as “the most promising he’s ever seen” since his involvement.
“I’ve never seen this many opportunities and this many people who are engaged, who want to help entrepreneurship,” Strobl said. “It’s very, very exciting.
